Mamma Mia that was a fun night! The show was fantastic - fun and lively and extremely well done. It incorporates all ABBA music (I think a few of the slower songs were originals, but die-hard ABBA-addicts may correct me) so it was really entertaining. The funniest parts were when the would use the lines from the song in the dialogue to lead into the music. I know right now it's hard to tell the difference between me & the theatre critic for the New York Times with all these technical terms, so just rest assured that I really enjoyed it. At the end the cast came back up to do 3 more songs (with full choreographed dancing) and had the whole audience up dancing with them! (Up in their seats - we didn't get to rush the stage or have a mosh pit or anything).

Outshining the show however, was the theatre! It was at the Civic Theatre (I posted a pic of outside and will upload more of inside soon) which was built in the 1920's with an oriental theme for the outer lobby and roman for the theatre itself. The lobbies are all done with buddhas and elephants and monkeys, etc. on the walls and ceilings and chandeliers, everywhere. It's incredible. Then the inside of the theatre (which seats 3000) looks and feels like an outdoor Roman theatre will the large columns and stone art. The ceiling in it is made to look like the sky with stars twinkling and clouds floating - I was happy just in the room, nevermind the show! It was all redone in 1999 (costing a mere $45m) to restore it to its original state, and has only reopened within the last year or so. It took 33 weeks to build in the early 1920's and 4 years to restore in the 2000's. That's progress for you!